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Guide:How to play a zealot
__TOC__ Playing the Zealot When the game begins, players will get the oportunity to pick whether they wish to play probe, zealot or random. If the player picks zealot or random, they have a chance to be selected to play as the zealot. If nobody chooses to be the zealot or random, a probe will be randomly selected to be a Zealot. However, note that regardless of how many players chose to play the Zealot, only one player will get to do so, chosen randomly among all candidates. Other pame works. Falling behind as a probe is a lot less punishing since you can rely on your teammates for protection and resources. Overall playstyle The zealot begins with no equipment aside from their innate abilities. In order to improve, the player must upgrade it with up to 6 items at the time, which can always be sold back at their full price to make room for better items. Zealots purchase their equipment from the item shop (which looks like a Terran Factory structure) situated at the middle of the map. The shop also heals the zealot almost instantly when approached. Minerals for items may be acquired by attacking probe structures based on the damage dealt to it. Each point of damage translates to one mineral for the player, which may be spent to further upgrade the zealot's damage, and therefore, income. Salvaged generators also leave behind a small mineral pellet which can be collected for additional resources. These expire after 90 seconds and should be collected when possible. In order to win, a zealot must attack probe structures, upgrade, and eventually become so strong, that probes can no longer afford to upgrade their defenses to keep up. Items and upgrade progresion Items can be purchased from the item shop, and replaced by selling them back and purchasing a better item of the same type. Zealots have 6 slots for purchasable items, but as long as they don't need the other slots, they can keep filling slots with low tier items with stackable effects to no ill effect. Note that only weapon and life items stack. Item costs grow exponentially, starting at 100 minerals, and capping at 12800, at which point, the players will need 1 vespene gas to upgrade further. One gas can be traded at the shop for 64000 each and may not be refuned for minerals. Gas item progression varies, with the most expensive weapon and armor costing as much as 512 gas. The following primary items are available in the shop: *Weapon (attack damage) *Gloves (attack speed) *Life (max hitpoints) *Armor (damage reduction) *Boots (movement speed) *Regeneration The most important things to upgrade is the attack damage and attack speed (jointly, DPS). The more damage the player can do, the more money they can invest in their equipment. As a rule of thumb, you should always spend about as 3 times as much on damage as you do on attack speed, and only ever purchase other upgrades when you need them. Attack speed will not be cost effective at all until you have at least 600 minerals worth of weapon items. However, if you see yourself in situation where you cannot effectively farm, you may have to sell some of your DPS equipment to get more life upgrades. Initially, the zealot only has 500 life points, which can be quickly depleted by a large number of tier 4 turrets. When that happens, the player should begin investing into life, and eventually armor upgrades. Do not purchase any armor until you have at least the 3200 mineral life upgrade (+8000 life). Even then, the benefits of armor are marginable. You should only ever have to purchase armor upgrades beyond the 1600 mineral armor (45% reduction) when you have the Regeneration has very, very limited uses. Inexperienced players should never, ever purchase it, even if advised by their hunter allies. There are also several two other miscellaneous items in the shop that grant increased vision and magic immunity respectively, but by the time a player can afford them, they will usually purchase higher level boots which grant both of these benefits as well as movement speed. How much defenses do I need to attack? As a rule of thumb, you should purchase just enough defensive equipment to be able to comfortably attack a probe wall for at least 30 seconds at a time, at which point it becomes more cost effective to run back and upgrade your DPS. On closer bases like most golds, you can effectively farm in as little as 10-15 seconds. Remember to always upgrade DPS first, unless you need better defenses or suspect a large damage spike from the probes such as from a T11 turret. This table describes how much defensive equipment you will usually need to successufully feed against most common (read: sensible) types of defensive setups probes are likely to have against you. You will generally not see all of these situations in a single game, and may not even see setups like a large number of tier 4 turrets unless you play 1v1. Items are specified by their costs instead of bonus. Some key moments in probe turret growth allow them to almost instantly kill a zealot. To avoid that, keep in mind the following typical zealot killing setups: *Do not approach T6 turrets without any life items *Do not approach T9 turrets without 1600 mineral life *Do not approach T11 turrets without 1 gas life and preferably, 1 gas armor *Do not appraoch T13 turrets without 32 gas armor If you don't know what to expect from a probe, use your scan to examine their defenses. If you are attacking and see a turret being upgraded into something you cannot handle, run away immediately, using your cloak or teleport if necessary. Starting out and early game Before zealots enter the game, they must wait for 30 second timer, which you can see on the top right corner of your screen. When your zealot appears, you will only have 40 minerals at your disposal. In order to acquire your first upgrade, you will need at least 100 minerals, which may be acquired by attacking probe structures. You will also recieve minerals at a fixed rate, so if you are 1-2 minerals shy of an upgrade, you can idle around the shop for a few seconds. Don't do this if you need to spent more than 10 seconds idling, as time wasted will cost you more money in the long run. Zealots start with the following innate abilities: *Mineral claw - grants the zealot minerals equal to the damage they deal to structures *Scanner Sweep - grants vision to the targeted area and reveals cloaked units for a short duration. This ability is identical to the Starcraft II Orbital Command's ability, except it doesn't cost energy and has a cooldown. *Cloak - causes the zealot to become invisible unless detected by a zealot detector. Also increases movement speed for the duration. Cloak lasts for 10 seconds or until the zealot attacks. Being revealed and attacked does not prevent the movement speed bonus. *Teleport - instantly returns you to your starting location, unless you are affected by void prison. This ability has a 180 second cooldown. At the start of the game, probes will have built a bunch of generators around your spwan point, which will get salvaged before you appear. However, if you see any buildings near you, you should attack them immediately when your zealot appears until they are killed or you have 100 minerals. Remember, that you do not want to kill probes right know. Your only priority is getting minerals, which means attacking their buildings which disappear if the probes die. If you see a vulnerable probe and that probe is not vastly ahead of you economically, ignore it. Dead probes do not build bases for you to farm on later on, and all of their buildings disappear immediately, not even leaving a mineral pellet for you. You should only ever consider killing probes once you start getting gas items, unless you are very far behind. Your first priority as a zealot finding a probe base, and start attacking their structures. To do this, you can either move into vision range of your zealot, or use your scanner sweep ability. Initially, you should scans to reveal hard to reach places where probes may have hidden their bases to avoid exessive travel. Some good places to scout are: *Gold bases. You should check these very often (ideally once per 2 in-game minutes) each, as probes will often hide or try to secure them. An especially critical moment to check is when probes start constructing tier 6 and 7 generators, since they'll usually need minerals at this point, and the gold bases become quite attractive sources of income. These become obsolute beyond the 15+ minute mark, so don't bother checking them as often once the game progresses so far. *Regular mineral bases close to the zealot spawn. Some probes will usually build there hoping that the zealot will not have the presense of mind to check, and thus allow you some easy farm. *Corner bases. These put a lot of distance between the zealot and item shop. It's highly recommended to spend some of your initial 1600 minerals into the 200 boots item if you need to farm these on larger maps. *Large bases. Probes, especially those who play together will usually try to establish themselves there. Lone probes who play for the endgame will also try to secure them. *Out of place locations not within your the zealot's path or suitable for permanent bases. Sneaky probes will build their generators there, hoping you can't afford to waste scans on them. These hiding spots become obsolete once probes reach their max generators. Remember that if a probe salvages their base, they may move it somewhere you've previously scouted. Keep checking likely places, especially if they are close to your route and don't take too long to scout. Keep using your scans on bases you haven't checked in a while if possible. As you play the game you will develop a sense for where probes like to hide and will get better at finding their bases. Don't worry about trying to memorize them, and just stick to checking major bases in your first few games as a zealot. Mineral capped and mid game with final blade you pretty much instantly win...not much can stop you. At this point kill probes Late game Final tower... Biggest boner... Game is over!